“Blown Away”–fear of the future

Wynn, Perry. “Blown Away”. Harrington Park Press, 2006

Fear of the Future

Amos Lassen

As we are all aware that politics are big news. The gay community has recently seen how much weight they can pull in an election and which of its issues matter to the voter. “Blown Away” takes a look at the political climate of America some time in the future. Gay rights are no longer an issue. They have relegated to the a place known as the ‘Territory. The ‘Territory is a refuge in Florida for those people who exhibit homosexual tendencies. Looking at America through the eyes of Perry Wynn’s lesbian lovers is quite a different picture than we have in America today. What happened? What usually happens when a country is dominated by politicians—graft, corruption, conspiracy and the misuse of power. It was these very things that changed the face of America. To divulge the plot would be to deprive you of a reading experience you do not want to miss.

“Blown Away” is intelligent, exciting and full of suspense. As the book examines how far the Christian right would go to destroy the liberal left, we see the plight of gays and lesbians as a serious stake. While examining these political extremists, we get a picture of a gay utopia, an independent state carved out of a hunk of Florida which is governed by Elizabeth Nix, a beautiful lesbian attorney who has been through the mill, having survived passion, tragedy and betrayal. This is a chilling look at the future, a look at America that is so at odds with the issue of homosexuality that the only way it could be settled was to create a separate place for them. The idea is abhorrent but after reading “Blown Away”, it is easy to see how America could have reached that point. This chilling picture came about because of the terrorists and neo-conservatives that left the rest of the country surviving in the wake of their vehemence.

Wynn’s characters are built with amazing clarity; the multi-dimensional gays and lesbians vs. the one dimensional good guys. In reality the story is not about us but about the politics of insanity and the effect of desicions which are based solely on love and hate. Here is tee fry and the ire of right wing America. The creation of a territory for homosexuals and lesbians threatens the solidarity of the gay community regardless as to how ineffective it might be. “The gay problem” is not a gay problem—it is the problem of society as a whole. To allow the radical minority to isolate us is a horrible thought, yet the lack of togetherness of gays and lesbians apparently allowed it to happen.

In some aspects this book crosses literary genres in that it is a romance novel as well as a political treatise. It is the romance that lets the story flow; the politics scare the hell out of me. This is the kind f book that is best read as a whole and not in sections. The impact of the book is devastating and it opened up the whole area of self-worth yet again. If a book can drive us to question ourselves, it has to be valuable reading.